Grandar was hiding in a forest, along with a hundred kramstuk rebels. They got information the day before that a fnar caravan would travel towards Nello on a route right alongside the forest, transporting tons of food. They prepared an ambush. They only had to wait a few minutes for the fnars to arrive.

Grandar wars prepared as he held his hammer in his hands. The whole rebellion was still surreal to him. He lived his entire life under the Fnar Empire. He wasn’t even alive when the Kramstuk Kingdom fell, and now he was part of a rebellion that could cause the empire's collapse.

All the kramstuk cities from the territories of the former kingdom joined the rebellion without hesitation. Grandar was confident that they would win the war. It may take years, however.

He was thinking about Ghared, who was still in Nello, preparing an attack on another fnar city with his father. Ghared was impatient and a bit greedy. Grandar hated to acknowledge that, but he thought Ghared would be a bad leader for the rebellion and hoped they would find someone better instead of him. He still considered him his friend, he just wasn’t sure that Ghared would be a better ruler than the fnars.

He was sure they would find great leaders after they form some kind of alliance with the other kramstuk cities. They were disorganized, the cities operated independently of each other. They had to create a united faction against the fnars.

“They’re here!” a rebel informed Grandar and the other kramstuks. The time has come. Everyone drew their weapons.

A few minutes later, all of them could see the caravan. There were dozens of sohols with tons of crates and chests on their back, accompanied by fnar soldiers.

The kramstuks waited, hiding behind the woods, counting the sohols and the fnars as they went by. Although they mainly used the lizards for transporting people and cargo, they could also fight, so the rebels had to be careful. Grandar counted thirty sohols with a soldier guarding each. They only wanted to kill the fnars, but the sohols often defended their owners, so the rebels had to prepare for a fight against the lizards too.

“Attack,” Grandar shouted.

The kramstuks revealed themselves from the forest and stormed the fnar caravan. Archers shot at them, five fnars already died from their arrows.

Grandar charged at a surprised fnar, who had no idea what happened, the ambush shocked him. He glanced at Grandar, who was running toward him, but before he could pull out his sword, the kramstuk hit him in the head with his hammer.

Grandar couldn't even see the crushed head of his victim, as another fnar attacked him with a sword. The kramstuk blocked his attack with the hammer, then tried to hit the soldier in the mouth with his elbow but missed, and instead, he hit the fnar’s horn, which was probably more painful to Grandar than the fnar.

The soldier kicked Grandar’s leg, then swung at his head. The kramstuk dodged the attack, then hit the fnar’s leg with his hammer, shattering his foot into pieces. The poor creature screamed from his lungs. Grandar raised his hammer again, then attacked, breaking the fnar’s horn from its jaw.

Grandar looked around. He happily saw that the sohols didn’t join the fight against them. It looked like the fnars didn’t bother forming a connection with the animals. The sohols were more complicated creatures than civilized species cared to admit.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

The kramstuks quickly overpowered the caravan. Grandar only killed two soldiers, and there were no signs of any others; the kramstuks killed most of them, only three remained, and they surrendered.

Grandar approached the three fnars surrounded by the rebels. He could see the fear on their faces.

“They surrendered,” a kramstuk rebel reported to Grandar. “I think we should take them as prisoners.”

“I agree,” Grandar responded. “Hopefully, they have some useful information. We’ll take them with us to Nello.”

“Yes, sir!” a kramstuk nodded, then tied the hands of the fnars.

Grandar walked to one of the sohols to check their cargo. He smashed a crate’s lock with his hammer to open it. It was full of fresh fruits. He then checked another one, which had bread in it.

After they inspected every single crate, they happily saw that all of it was full of food. They just had to transport it to the capital.

“I think we should stay here for the night,” said a kramstuk rebel to Grandar. “It’s already dark.”

“Yeah, not a bad idea,” Grandar nodded. “We’ll stay in the forest until morning, then go to Nello.”

Grandar watched as the rebels gave food to the sohols. It would’ve been a waste to leave them there. It was a successful mission, after all, the kramstuk thought. They killed 27 fnars without a single casualty and also got a lot of food and sohols.

He walked to his tent to sleep. His elbow still hurt because of that fnar. He fell asleep pretty quickly. He woke up from sleep a few hours later because he heard something outside his tent. Someone was walking. Maybe even multiple people.

Grandar stood up. Maybe they were ambushed by the fnars? No, that would be impossible, he thought. The camp had guards, they would’ve already alarmed him.

As he tried to walk out of his tent, a fnar kicked him in the head. Grandar fell back to his tent. The fnar walked inside too, holding a dagger in his hand. The kramstuk looked up to his attacker. He recognized him, it was among the three prisoners they captured a few hours before. They somehow escaped, and they wanted revenge for their fallen comrades.

The fnar kneeled down to reach Grandar, who was still lying on the ground. He raised his dagger, aiming at the kramstuk leader’s neck. Grandar was still seeing stars because of the kick, but his survivor instincts kicked in, and he grabbed the fnar’s hands as he tried to stab him. He tried to push back the dagger with his full power, but he was still sleepy, and the blade almost reached his neck.

He tried kicking the fnar attacker in the leg, but he wasn’t in an optimal position, so it wasn’t that effective.

“Captain Grandar!” a kramstuk soldier shouted from outside.

“Help!” Grandar responded. The soldier ran inside the tent, and pulled out his sword, pointing at the fnar. The prisoner jumped to his feet and pointed his dagger at the kramstuk. He ran towards the soldier, but the kramstuk dodged his attack. Meanwhile, Grandar stood up too, but he didn’t have any weapon.

The fnar prisoner punched the kramstuk in the face, then stabbed him in the heart, killing him. Grandar jumped at the attacker, trying to take away his dagger, but the fnar managed to escape from his hold.

Grandar quickly took the sword from the dead kramstuk rebel, and stood in a defensive position, waiting for the fnar to attack.

The prisoner charged toward the kramstuk, but Grandar quickly reacted and swung with his sword, decapitating the fnar. The inside of the tent was full of red blood.

Grandar ran out, expecting to find the other two fnar prisoners somewhere, killing other kramstuks. Luckily, he saw that both fnars were killed. Their bodies were surrounded by kramstuk rebels.

“Captain,” a rebel ran to Grandar. “The prisoners tried to escape. They killed three of our men!”

“Four,” Grandar responded. “They killed another one in my tent.”

“In your tent? Sorry, captain, we won’t let that happen again!” the kramstuk apologized.

“It’s okay, don’t worry. I think we won’t take any prisoners of war anytime soon…”

He wanted to go back to sleep, but he changed his mind. He had to clean his tent, from the blood and the two dead bodies. It’ll be a long night…